Welcome to the website of the Digital Media Law Project. The DMLP was a project of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society from 2007 to 2014. Due to popular demand the Berkman Klein Center is keeping the website online, but please note that the website and its contents are no longer being updated. Please check any information you find here for accuracy and completeness.

The journalism market in the United States is more diverse than ever before, with a wide array of independent newsgatherers complementing the work of institutional news organizations. But regardless of where journalists practice, it is essential to their mission that they have access to information about the activities of government and private organizations. In many cases, laws that grant the public rights of access to government (such as open meetings laws, freedom of information acts, and constitutional rights of access to judicial proceedings) also guarantee that members of the media can obtain information they need.

But when journalists need access to government or private spaces beyond what is allowed to the public at large, they must obtain special permission. This frequently takes the form of a media credential, an official document or statement from an organization that the journalist is permitted to be somewhere or engage in particular activity, regardless of rules applicable to the rest of the public. The issuance of credentials is, however, far less uniformly regulated than other interactions between press and government. Diverse standards imposed by federal, state, local, and private organizations have led to confusion over who should receive media credentials in different contexts, and raised questions about the definitions of journalism used by these organizations.

This study, the first of its kind to perform a quantitative examination of media credentialing in the United States, surveys the experience of journalists throughout the country in their efforts to obtain media credentials from different types of credentialing organizations from 2008 to 2013. The survey results show that one out of every five respondents who applied for a credential was denied by a credentialing organization at least once. Moreover, certain categories of applicants are more likely to be denied than others: freelance journalists were significantly less likely to receive media credentials than employed journalists; photographers were more likely to be denied than non-photographers; and respondents who identified themselves as activists were more likely to be denied than those who did not.

The Digital Media Law Project at Harvard University's Berkman Center for
Internet and Society provides online legal resources for independent
journalists and online media ventures. Through a variety of initiatives,
the DMLP provides journalists with the legal information and assistance they
need in a form that is useful.

Based at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard, the Journalist's Resource
project examines news topics through a research lens. We focus on
surfacing scholarly materials that may be relevant to other media
practitioners, bloggers, educators, students and general readers.

Founded in 1946, the National Press Photographers Association is dedicated to the
advancement of visual journalism – its creation, practice, training,
editing and distribution – in all news media and works to promote its
role as a vital public service.

Free Press is building a powerful nationwide movement to change media
and technology policies, promote the public interest and strengthen
democracy. Free Press advocates for universal and affordable Internet
access, diverse media ownership, vibrant public media and quality
journalism.

An association of more than 100 nonprofit newsrooms, the mission of the Investigative News Network is to
help nonprofit news organizations produce and distribute stories with
impact; to achieve cost efficiencies by pooling resources and services;
and to develop new revenue streams that will help member organizations
become sustainable, mission-driven, nonprofit businesses.

A project of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, the Nieman
Journalism Lab is an attempt to help journalism figure out its future in
an Internet age. We want to highlight attempts at innovation and figure
out what makes them succeed or fail. We want to find good ideas for
others to steal. We want to help reporters and editors adjust to their
online labors; we want to help traditional news organizations find a way
to survive; we want to help the new crop of startups that will
complement - or supplant - them.

We are looking for contributing authors with expertise in media law, intellectual property, First Amendment, and other related fields to join us as guest bloggers. If you are interested, please contact us for more details.

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Copyright 2007-17 Digital Media Law Project and respective authors. Except where otherwise noted,content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License: Details.Use of this site is pursuant to our Terms of Use and Privacy Notice.